Principal Product Manager

At Version 1, we are solving complex, meaningful problems that deliver real impact. Working with leading public and private sector organisations across the UK and Ireland, we deliver important, real-world outcomes. For example, we help ensure prisoners are released at the right time, and reduce the cost of recruiting teachers for schools. Our Principal Product Managers sit at the heart of these transformations — operating at the most senior levels of our client organisations, shaping strategy, and making sure that large, complex programmes stay pointed in the right direction.  Here's what that looks like day to day: • Define and hold the vision — set a clear direction at programme level, reinforce it consistently across teams, stakeholders, and suppliers, and protect it from the entropy that affects every large programme. • Own the organisational roadmap — plan, prioritise, and communicate across many teams simultaneously, surface and resolve cross-organisational dependencies, and make the hard calls about sequencing when everything feels urgent. • Frame problems before solutions — continuously discover, ask the right questions, and ensure the programme is solving the right problem at the right level. • Champion the user — bring real user insight into every conversation and every decision, ensuring it shapes priorities and trade-offs even when operating at pace and scale. • Govern suppliers and partners — influence organisations you don't control, hold them to shared goals, and resolve tensions constructively. • Navigate with diplomacy — handle difficult conversations across civil servant teams, operational stakeholders, and other suppliers with tact. This environment involves competing priorities and strong opinions; you know how to challenge and hold a position without damaging the relationships that matter. • Collaborate openly — work across disciplines — design, engineering, data, policy — as true problem-solving partners. • Facilitate with purpose — run workshops and meetings that lead to clear decisions and shared understanding. • Shape and secure incoming work — stay close to budget-holders' needs: spotting high-value opportunities, crafting compelling propositions, and shaping the team needed to win and deliver great work. • Drive progress — take ownership and ensure the team gets over the line. • Deliver with integrity — do the right thing, including having difficult conversations when needed, so we can proudly stand behind our work. This role requires eligibility for Security Check (SC) clearance. • To be eligible, you must have the right to work in the UK and will have resided in the UK for at least 5 years Who You Are • You operate at programme scale. You've held a vision across organisations, managed roadmaps that span dozens of teams, and navigated the kind of senior stakeholder politics that derail less experienced people. • You've earned credibility fast. In complex environments — where priorities shift, suppliers need governing, and senior stakeholders need to trust you before you've had time to prove yourself — you know how to show up and get traction. • You build and lead high-performing teams, solve the right problems to drive outcomes, and bring clarity and alignment through storytelling. • You lead with curiosity and empathy, asking the right questions that get to the heart of a problem. You create environments where diverse perspectives are heard and the best ideas can emerge, wherever they come from. • You make decisions and set direction. You balance user needs, business priorities, and technical constraints to make clear, timely calls — particularly in uncertainty. You focus effort where it will have the greatest impact and bring others with you through those decisions. How You Operate